Into The Ashes
A different take on revenge
The Morbid Imagination loves “orphan” crime films. These are usually B-level films that made little impact on their initial release, but deserve a second look.
One such is Into The Ashes, written and directed by Aaron Harvey, co-produced by crime film maven Joe Carnahan, was released into theaters in 2019 and promptly disappeared.
(Spoilers) Nick (Luke Grimes), an ex-con, has settled into a peaceful life, working a dead-end job, married to the daughter of the local sheriff. He hunts on the weekend with his friend Sal, earning extra money fixing up a cabin. His world is shattered when he returns from hunting to find his wife shot dead and his former crime partners. Sloan (Frank Grillo) and Charlie (David Wade) waiting for him. It turns out that they went to prison for a robbery that Grimes participated in; Grimes got off lighter and wound up with the cash, which he used to buy a house. Clearly, they are not happy about that.
Grimes is shot and left for dead. He awakens in the hospital, handcuffed to his bed. The sheriff (Robert Taylor) accuses him of responsibility for the death of his daughter and confesses he is tempted to shoot him himself. When he leaves and a deputy takes his place, Grimes is able to escape and get on the trail of Grillo and Wade.
At this point, Into The Ashes has set itself up as a revenge movie. Grillo, unsurprisingly, does a great job making himself a very hate-able villain. His partner, Wade, is slimy and weird. What elevates Into The Ashes above the standard issue revenge B-movie is how it plays out its third act. I’ve criticized the revenge movie trope before (HERE). Movies like this, that simply refuse to follow the trope, win points in my mind.
The main wrinkle is a shift in perspective that takes place just as Grimes gets on the trail. The movie moves from following Grimes to Taylor, the sheriff. He moves in the wake of the carnage left by Grimes and Sloan. This creates a mystery: who killed Sal and Wade? Where are Grimes and Sloan?
Taylor correctly guesses that Grimes has gone into hiding at the cabin he was renovating. He finds him there, along with evidence that he has taken bloody revenge on Sloan. Grimes relates how he got to that point via flashback.
And here is what makes this movie unusual and what ultimately elevates it for me. The movie doesn’t show Grimes actually taking his revenge. In all the dozens (hundreds?) of revenge movies I’ve watched, in every single one there is the scene where the protagonist takes out the character that killed his wife/killed his family/killed his dog/etc. It’s usually brutal and occasionally delivered with a resounding quip.
Not here. All we see is a bloody knife.
The movie ends on a somber note as Taylor decides to let Grimes go, meditating on the nature of violence.
Into The Ashes isn’t an exceptional movie, just a solid orphan crime film. The cast is excellent, even Grimes, who usually specializes in glowering and moping. Unlike your typical Jason Statham pretend-blue-collar-revenge movie, the cast and the Alabama setting convincingly portrays a working class environment. The sense of choices made in desperation because of limited options is real here.
It occurred to me that this easily could have been a Western, especially with the presence of Grimes (Yellowstone) and Taylor (Longmire). There have been some Western-shaped crime films in recent years; some were great: No Country for Old Men, Hell or High Water, for example. Some, like Into The Ashes, were just alright. Taylor Sheridan has built an entire career on adapting Western tropes and forms for the modern age.
I’d like to see more filmmakers, especially at the B-movie level, explore old Westerns that don’t involve revenge plots and update them for the present as crime films. Especially some of the films I’ve explored in my Western Noir series. There are great stories to be found there, stories relevant to today’s America, stories about the nature of violence and capitalism and damaged men. And in doing so, they could help keep the Western genre alive.
Into The Ashes is available streaming free on Tubi.